Analysis of Leakage in Bolted-Flanged Joints with Gasket and Under Thermal Condition, a Critical Review

Bolted flange joints are widely used in engineering structure. The evolution of leakage is studied using detailed contact finite element analysis. The distribution of stress at the gasket is analyzed using a contact condition based on slide-line elements using ABAQUS, a commercial finite element code. Slide-line elements also take into account pressure penetration as contact that is lost between flange and gasket. Results are presented for a particular flange, a raised face flange sealed by a mild steel gasket. Although a lot of pipe flange connections are exposed to elevated temperature during long-term plant operation, a sealing performance of the pipe flange connections at elevated temperature is not well understood because of the experimental difficulty and the analytical problems due to the lack of the materials properties of gaskets at elevated temperature. The authors have been evaluating the effect of the material properties of spiral wound gaskets (SWG) and the sealing performance of the pipe flange connections at elevated temperature.